Scrabble fans to protest changes to Facebook game

WORDPLAY GAMERS are planning to protest recent changes to Mattel's online version of Scrabble.

The word tile game has been a mainstay of the family holiday and post Christmas dinner argument for decades. Recently it made the move to Facebook, and even more recently it had a facelift that infuriated Scrabble players.

The companies didn't respond, but we did get a lot of comments from people who were upset about the facelift.

Change.org has announced a Scrabblethon that will unite players from 10 countries on 13 July to play the game and moan about the changes.

"Thousands of fans have been invited to take part in the 'Worldwide Scrabbleathon' Scrabble convention which aims to highlight outrage at alterations to the popular online game which campaigners claim has ruined the playing experience," it said in a statement.

"The protest is the culmination of a campaign which has seen Scrabble fans take to social media to vent frustration at the changes which they say have destroyed their gaming experience. Campaigners say that while Mattel claims to have consulted players, hundreds of thousands of ordinary Scrabble players have had their views ignored."

A Change.org petition was started by a chap called John Lewis and has thousands of signatures from people who are upset about changes to the game, its length, and the sort of people you can play against.

"We want to show Mattel just how much they've let us ordinary players down. This may seem light hearted but there are social impacts here. We've had messages from people who described online Scrabble as their main interaction with the outside world," said Lewis.

"They've changed the dictionary to exclude millions of potential of users, people's gaming histories have been lost, the rules have changed and people feel completely alienated from a game that they loved."